The Risk of Cutting Corners

Increasingly, businesses are focussing on driving down costs in order improve financial performance. While in some situations this can demonstrate a boost to profits, cutting corners in order to lower costs on certain items can prove detrimental to your business.

While it may seem counter-intuitive to increase spending on things that appear secondary to the  fundamentals of your operations, like workwear and uniform, investing in good quality clothing and equipment for your team can prove surprisingly impactful. Here are some reasons why:

Branding and company image

Businesses who invest in their premises to appear smart, professional and of high quality should also consider the way their team are presented, to ensure a consistent brand message.

How your business appears to clients or potential business partners can affect their perception of the work you do. Just as you wouldn’t want them to walk into your company premises to be greeted with a reception area that is badly decorated, dirty, or messy, you wouldn’t want the team members representing your company to these people to be uniformed in cheap, ill-fitting or messy-looking workwear.

Investing in high-quality workwear reinforces your brand’s message of high-quality and trust.

Longevity

Investing in better quality items will save you money in the long run.

The workwear you’re providing for your staff are the clothes they’ll be wearing every working day, so cheap or poor quality items are more likely to wear out, break or fade considerably in the wash.

Good quality workwear will last longer, so the initial higher payment is likely to work out cheaper in the long run, as fewer replacement items are needed.

Productivity

Ensuring your workers are provided with quality workwear can help them to fulfil their roles more effectively.

For example, the quality of a waterproof jacket can affect the work your team does. A cheaper waterproof jacket may not provide as much protection as you might think, and employees who are getting wet despite their jackets are probably not able to concentrate on their work as well as if they were dry and comfortable.

This is also relevant for temperature. If an employee is required to work in a cold area, such as a refrigerated storeroom or a freezer, and their workwear does not provide the protection against the cold that they need, they’ll not be able to work in that facility for as long, or work as effectively, as if they were provided with high quality jackets that allow them to conserve their body heat.

Staff Morale

What employees wear affects their attitude, mood and engagement with a company. Asking your staff to wear cheap, poorly fitting workwear, or workwear that doesn’t perform as well as it should, lowers morale, reduces effectiveness due to discomfort, and can lead to a feeling of resentment towards you as the employer.

On the other hand, providing your staff with good quality, well-made clothes that perform well can boost performance, improve morale and strengthen employee engagement. This means improved performance, and also that your employee retention rates are likely to be higher, reducing the costs associated with recruiting new team members. Uniforms and branded workwear provide staff with a sense of unity, professionalism, shared purpose, identity and productivity, and when the workwear is high quality this only strengthens that feeling.

Responsibility

If your staff are issued with high-quality equipment and workwear, they are more likely to treat that equipment better, meaning fewer items are likely to be lost or broken. For example, providing your workers with safety glasses can go one of two ways. If you issue cheap disposable glasses to each team member, there’s a good chance your employees will be able to tell they’re cheap and are more likely to lose them, leave them lying around, or break them.

However, if you issue your team members with more expensive glasses that come in an individual case, your workers are likely to recognise this expense, and feel a sense of ownership over their equipment, meaning that they’ll take more care of it and the rate of loss or breakage of equipment will decrease.

Customer Service

Staff who feel cared for by their employer are more likely feel a sense of pride in their work, which is passed on to your customers through excellent service. However, if staff feel like their employer doesn’t care, they may begin to question why they should care, too, which can only be detrimental to the level of service they’ll deliver.  Providing your employees with high quality workwear and equipment is one way you can show your employees you care about their appearance, their comfort, and the image of the company, which will boost the pride they feel in their work and drive them to deliver their best work.

Prove the Benefits of Quality Workwear

When you order your workwear through Industrial Workwear’s online ordering portal, you’ll be able to access a comprehensive range of reporting tools to help you analyse your spending and see exactly how much more cost-effective buying quality items can be over time. To find out more about sourcing the perfect workwear (and proving the ROI), request a demo today.